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On the issues

October 21, 2008

In an effort to appease my always-multitasking mind, I’m going to start a new bunch of post categories on Two Cents and a Thousand Words.

The first new category is called “On the issues,” and its roots are in last month’s post about debate versus attacks and everything in between. Long-time followers of TCaaTW know that I don’t often go political on my blog, but recent followers of my Twitter stream will attest to the fact that I’ve gone there lately.

Because our leaders-to-be are letting us down in the arena of actual issues, I realized the only way to have a true discussion about the issues is to start with some opinions that are close to my heart: my own. (In retrospect “discussion” would have been a better term than “debate” in the aforementioned September politics post.) I’ll choose an issue, lay out my beliefs and what has led me to where I stand, and ask for comments. There are a few ground rules:

I don’t envision ever running for elected office.
I’ll sometimes admit that there are things I don’t know. I’m ok with that.
If you disagree, tell me why.
I will listen to good arguments, and they may influence my position on issues.
I may post revised versions if my stance changes enough.

This idea was inspired by Barack Obama’s Policy Issues site and several individuals who will be quoted in future posts. (Whether you agree or disagree with Obama’s policies, the Web portion of his campaign is truly inspiring.)

I’ll keep a running list of topics at the bottom of this post as I add new ones.

The (REAL) launch of Pine Tree Photography

October 20, 2008

If you’ve been tolerating my politics-laden Twitter feed or Collage lately, you know I launched a new version of my Pine Tree Photography site last weekend. What’s the change? It’s pretty simple. You can now buy my photos.

Here’s how it works. There are no real visual design changes to the site; the only difference is that when you reach a photo page, you’ll now have the option to add matted or unmatted prints to a cart. View your cart, enter your shipping info, pay at PayPal, receive prints in a week or two. It’s that easy.

As I’ve said before, photography is a passion for me, and I don’t think I’d ever want to have it be my sole occupation. If I can make some money on the side doing what I love to do, though, I’m not going to limit myself. I do love photography, and I love matting (and the whole shipping process) just as much. If you know of anyone who would be interested in some Maine prints, have them browse around the site.

Because I love you all so much, though, I’m not stopping there. I also launched the Pine Tree Photography Stock Collection. While the gallery at the print site of PTP is pretty limited to my favorite shots, I’ve opened up the doors to more photos that might be useful in projects of all types. Again, the process is pretty easy for this. Find a photo you like, pay at PayPal (starting at $30, depending on the size of the download), instantly receive an e-mail with download links to the photos you’ve purchased, use them for just about anything (websites, note cards, flyers…). That’s the stock side of things, and we’re (I’m) all really excited about it.

Also, the photoblog formerly known as photoblog.justinrussell.com has moved to blog.pinetreephotography.com. Same great posts, new great address.

My next project is reviving this blog. More on that in a bit.

Politics as usual

September 11, 2008

I’m often called quiet, reserved, or introverted. As my close friends will tell you, though, there’s nothing I enjoy more than an honest debate. I like trying to understand why people stand by their convictions, their opinions, and their outlook on life. Almost any topic is fair game with me.

Well, with just over fifty days to go until Election Day, we’ve hit the bottom. I’ve been trying to stay up-to-date with the latest political news, but a lot of it just angers me. Every four years it seems the two months that could be most beneficial to America (and possibly the world) are squandered in the face of distortions, chatter, and scandal.

I’ve been trying to come up with an understandable way to express how I feel about the “game” of politics, as Obama put it during a recent event in Virginia. Here’s my view:

A campaign – or any political discussion, for that matter – can begin at any of these levels and move up and down at will. Let’s look at each level individually.

Attacks & Mistruths: When a person “hates politics,” this is usually what they mean. This level can include out-of-context quotes, innuendo, or outright lies.

Generalities & Emotion: Perhaps the broadest category, this level includes everything from emotional appeals to the use of commonly held beliefs. Often, though, these have little or no backing with actual policies or plans. You’ve heard them all in this election, and they’ve played a key role: hope, change, “country first,” “yes we can,” and so many more. Although the use of these sorts of strategies is better than using attacks and mistruths, they still do not help voters, supporters, or opponents decide rationally.

Facts: Candidates can use facts to support their arguments. Facts can include voting history, personal values, and statistics. Facts must be used with great care, however; misleading statistics fall under mistruths.

Debate: The pinnacle of politics is debate, when two sides come together to discuss their differences in search of the optimal solution to a problem. This is the most inspiring part of politics. Unfortunately, it’s usually the least-used as well.

If debate is the most promising part of politics, why isn’t it used more often? It’s pretty simple; it’s not sexy. Emotional issues of all types create more tension and more fodder for news coverage. When was the last time you saw an outline of opposing views on immigration in a news program or TV ad? (As a side note, this is one reason I enjoyed The West Wing so much as a television show. Though the primary objectives of the show were drama and character development, there was a good amount of discussion and debate about real-life issues in every episode.)

Good, honest debate truly does inspire me. There are many wonderfully intelligent people in the worlds who share different yet perfectly valid views on topics ranging from abortion to gay rights to the environment and climate change. It just doesn’t seem to happen in the months leading up to elections.

What do you think? Did I leave anything out? What advantages are there for a candidate to use less emotional and more rational tactics in a campaign or discussion?

Seeing the shot

August 9, 2008

(alternate title: “A brief history of my photographic interests”)

I’ve often heard a lot of talk about photographers seeing a shot that they’d like to take (usually said when the photographer doesn’t have a camera handy). It’s happened quite a few times to me.

Although I’ve always loved taking pictures, I really started having a serious interest in photography when I received my first digital camera in 1999. For the next few years, you’d find me out and about on weekends trying to find new places to photograph. I often ended up at Schoodic Point, Otter Point, or Portland Head Light. Once there, I’d take a couple hundred photos of the nature surrounding me and capturing my interest. Three- to four-hundred mile day trips weren’t ever out of the question.

Over the last couple of years, my focus has slowly changed. Maybe I ran out of new places to photograph. Maybe I got tired of driving. I like to believe, though, that it was an artistic decision. I was fortunate to take a photographic storytelling course with Bill Kuykendall in college. Bill, a very talented photojournalist and a frequent photographer at Penobscot Theatre, said something in regards to nature photography that I didn’t believe at the time but that I agree with wholeheartedly now: “after a while, you get tired of shooting rocks and trees.”

Starting around two or three years ago, something new started to appear in my photos: people. The most likely initial cause of this was probably photographing dance concerts at the University of Maine; from there, I found that capturing movement and emotion wins over rocks and trees any day of the week. It’s unusual to find me without a camera at a concert, a play, or a sporting event now, and I usually try to send the photos along to someone participating in the event so that they can use them for whatever they like if they choose.

Since I mentioned concert photography, I might as well touch upon the American Folk Festival. I take hundreds of pictures at the Festival each year, and it’s one of my top events every year to photograph. Last year, I wrote a bit about the missed shot that still haunts me: the entirety of the in-parade staff from the Bangor Daily News talking before the parade begun.

I’ve also found myself doing weddings for a few of my friends over the last couple of years. It’s amazing to look at the photos from weddings a couple of years ago compared to ones I took a couple of weeks ago; the entire subject matter is different. There are more stories in the photos, more expressions, more life, really. I always tell people I have a very photojournalistic approach to capturing events, but really I just enjoy emotion.

One of the aspects of photography I enjoy the most is that you learn to look at your experiences in a different way. You notice little things that would often be missed. At the same time, though, it can be a bit distracting; you can miss the actual performance or event while you’re looking at the “meta.” I’ve told Molly (one of the dancers at the University) that I’ll probably have to start going to two of the concert dates: one to photograph and one to actually watch the concert.

In April of last year I posted a quote from another BDN photojournalist, John Clarke Russ:

If you are a photographer and you take photographs for a living, you don’t do it for the money and you don’t do it for the glory. You do it because, somewhere along the line, in the course of any single day, you find yourself saying, “I need a camera to look at that.” And there’s a point in your life when you find that you’re stuck with it and you only look at life through that rectangle. Hopefully, you see life in a way that is different from how others see it.

Last night I went to the Penobscot Theatre’s performance of “Guys & Dolls.” The show was directed by Nathan Halvorson and was supported by the participants of PTC’s musical theatre camp. While my ears heard the Broadway numbers, my eyes saw the actors and singers in the wings encouraging their friends and Nathan encouraging the campers. It also turned out to be Nathan’s last night with the campers, and after the show there was an emotional farewell on stage as people exited the theatre. It made me wonder how many people in the theatre saw the stories surrounding the one being portrayed on stage. It also made me want my camera.

I have a feeling I’ll be seeing shots for the rest of my life.

What’s another blog gonna hurt

August 4, 2008

Due to the fact that I’m just short of insane, I’ve decided to start another blog. This one’s pretty simple: the photo blog I’ve always wanted. If you enjoy my photography and would like to hear a little more about the stories behind the photos, check it out. It runs off of my Flickr account; if you subscribe to that feed, you won’t see any photos you haven’t already seen. You’ll just miss out on a little fun and a little storytelling.

http://photoblog.justinrussell.com

The blog is designed to work in cooperation with justinrussell.com/photography, my new(-ish) portfolio site. I hope to use the blog as an incentive for me to take more pictures; we’ll see how that works out.

And, of course, it’s now part of Collage.

Congratulations Sara and Greg

July 15, 2008

Status report

July 2, 2008

I’d like to apologize to regular and occasional Two Cents readers for my hiatus over the last month and a half. I’ve been busy (big surprise), and my mind has been in so many places that I just haven’t grounded here in a while. For the people who read the blog instead of Collage (or for the people who read everything and are wondering what the heck all these releases are about), I’d like to give you an update on the so-called Justin Russell Network. It’s fairly lengthy, but it’s hopefully at least marginally informative.

Web development

Sephone

I head to a place called Sephone for around 40 hours each week. A majority of my time is doing custom work for area businesses that I unfortunately can rarely share, but my favorite part of the job is what I like to call our content products. These applications and services give people the ability to control their own sites without having to call us up to make changes.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been really fortunate to have some time to devote to our best-known products, datAvenger and datAvenger lite, and we’ve released a new version of both this week. (I posted about the datAvenger release on our blog.) I’ve also been able to write a podcast management service called SephoneCast that I’m excited to see in use pretty soon.

thinglobe

A couple of weeks ago I released thinglobe.com, a geo-based service for user-generated media. Quite simply it maps where videos, photos, and thoughts were created on a map. I have a ton of stuff that I want to do with it, and as of now I’d call it my flagship project by far. I’m really, really excited to see where it leads, and it’s just a cool service that I like to use myself.

Microreviewer

A week before thinglobe came out I coded up microreviewer.com, a service for giving short (very short) reviews of local businesses via Twitter. Microreviewer was, in short, a way for me to try a few things out, and I’m quite happy just letting it sit for a while. I’d rather focus my attention on other projects (thinglobe).

Collage

And no, I haven’t forgotten about Collage and justinrussell.com. I’d love to switch Collage over to run off of a service like FriendFeed at some point, and the very preliminary stages of a justinrussell.com redesign are in the works. That’s pretty much it for now, though.

Photography

justinrussell.com/photography

I recently released version 2.0 of justinrussell.com/photography, my photography portfolio site (and the winner of the “Did You Know There Was a 1.0” award). jr/photo has a couple of purposes. First, I have a link to send to people who ask if they can see some of my photos. Second, it boosts my confidence that I occasionally take good photos. Third, it’s a home base for my photography no matter where it ends up going in the future.

But really, if you want to see what I consider to be my best photos, head there. It’s also the home to the snazzy new justinrussell brand logo.

Pine Tree Photography

Remember Pine Tree Photography? PTP is my showcase site for nature and landscape photography. I have big plans (really big, actually) for PTP, but frankly they’re just not on the top of the list right now. At some point I want to build it up, but it’s just not there right now. Still, it’s a good place to explore some of my best photos in my most popular genre as of yet.

flickr.com/justinrussell

In order to make use of the $25/year I pay to Yahoo! for Flickr, I occasionally post photos there as well. To be honest I haven’t taken that many photos lately, but when I do the best ones will most likely end up on Flickr.

Writing

Another New World

Another New World is my passion about technology put into words; you just wouldn’t know it by the frequency of the posts. Out of all of my projects, I’d really like to devote more time to ANW, but I’m just now getting back into a writing mood. (Doing code for forty or more hours a week is sort of draining when it comes to text on a computer screen.) I really hope this picks back up.

Two Cents and a Thousand Words

I’m sort of unsure about the future of Two Cents; everything seems to be covered pretty well by other services (Twitter, individual blogs), so the posts here won’t be very frequent. If you want to stay in touch, I’d really recommend Collage instead.

The Small Steps Podcast

Small Steps is at a standstill. I love doing it, but the interest I was hoping for just wasn’t there. Also, there are a number of other podcasts doing the same kind of thing really well; I’d rather not reinvent the wheel. Search around; there are some great podcasts out there!

Thanks for sticking around. With the new stars of the top three (jr/photo, thinglobe, and Another New World), I’m really looking forward to the future. Be sure to let me know what you think about the current status, too!

Hi, I’m Justin.

May 14, 2008

Justin at Schoodic With BarCampBoston3 coming up this weekend, I thought it would be a good time to do a little introductory post for anyone who doesn’t know me.

I’m Justin. I graduated from the University of Maine in 2005 with a major in new media and minors in computer science and psychology. I’m currently employed at Sephone Internet Solutions, a Web design and development company in downtown Bangor, Maine.

One of my weaknesses is that I’ve always been interested in too many things. In addition to Web development, I spend quite a bit of time doing nature and event photography around Maine (as seen on Flickr or Pine Tree Photography, my gallery site). There’s also a lot of evidence around the Web of small projects I’ve started and all-but-abandoned due to my struggle with Application-ADD.

I love having good conversations. I love people who are passionate about what they do and people who try to make the world better. I have a wide variety of focus topics, but a few always rise to the top:

User-generated content / Metcalfe’s law
Location- and time-based content
Uses of today’s emerging technologies in tomorrow’s mainstream
Organization of complex data in understandable ways
Development and applications of creativity

Want to get a little better feel for who I am? Check out my Twitterstream or Collage, my aggregated collection of posts from around the Web. You can also always get in touch with me by e-mailing mail (at) justinrussell [dot] com. If you see me, feel free to say hi!

The bathtub

March 17, 2008

A couple of weekends ago I was home watching a financial report on TV with my parents. (No, that’s not typically what I do when I’m home, but we just happened to be sitting on the living room couch as Dad was watching the show.) In any case, we somehow stumbled onto a metaphor of a bathtub from his old banking days. The main idea was that you need to keep x flowing into a system at approximately the same rate as it flows out of the system; otherwise, the bathtub overflows. After thinking about it, I realized that a bathtub is a good metaphor for two other important parts of my life: project flow and information consumption.

Project flow as a bathtub

I work for a services company. We deal with clients every day, in a lot of different ways. With that said, I have a great appreciation for the people who manage to schedule and budget the work that comes in while managing expectations and making everything just work. It’s one of those things that you never notice if it’s working correctly, but it’s really obvious if it gets out of whack (overflow).

After some discussions among the development team, I realized that the projects that stress me out the most are the ones where no visible progress is being made. These are the toughest types: the bug reports and feature requests come in at a race that (sometimes greatly) exceeds the amount of work that is being done on the project. In other words, the hardest projects are those that after six or eight hours of work, you don’t feel as though you’ve accomplished anything; you may even feel as though you’ve lost ground.

In project flow, it’s important to make sure the bathtub does not overflow with a continuous stream of new work that can’t be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.

One possible remedy is to break down a large project into a few (or many) feature milestones. The ability to complete a feature in itself is much easier than completing a whole project. Another is to enforce a rule that a project must have clear objectives or boundaries within a certain phase; any additional features will be moved to a later release.

Information consumption as a bathtub

I follow a lot of people, read a lot of information, and listen to (and watch) a lot of podcasts. It’s simply overwhelming at times. I’ve been attempting over the last few days to reach RSS Zero, a modified version of Merlin Mann’s wonderful Inbox Zero system. (Inbox Zero will hopefully follow RSS Zero.) I’ve made some progress, but I’m still a long walk from the end of the tunnel.

Here’s the simple truth: there’s only so much time in a day. If you’re downloading more than 24 hours worth of content in a day, you won’t be able to listen to it all. Your information bathtub will overflow.

In information consumption, it’s important to make sure the bathtub does not overflow with an incoming stream of content that takes up more time than you physically have to consume it.

The solution may be the dreaded (or heralded) “Mark All as Read” button. Don’t worry. It’s OK. You can also reassess your feeds, podcasts, e-mail subscriptions, and everything else that flows into your readers each day.

Good luck! Now it’s back to tending my own tub.

A pinch of tradition

March 12, 2008

Gifford’s opens back up for the season on Friday; if you’re familiar with my obsession over ice cream, you wouldn’t be surprised that I’ve already started a countdown. Thinking about this new tradition made me realize the other annual observances on my calendar. Whether it’s a signal of a new season or a tie back to my childhood, my annual traditions all have special meaning to me.

Here’s a fairly complete list of the events that pop up each year on my calendar. The year links lead to media I’ve created. I’ve been doing “lifetime” traditions for as long as I can remember.

Downtown Countdown (January 1, started in 2006: 2006 2007 2008)
I (literally) start off the new year in downtown Bangor as a beach ball is thrown off the side of a building. Yes, that’s how we do holidays in Maine.
Gifford’s opening (mid-March, started in 2007: 2007)
One of the first sure signs of an oncoming spring is the opening of the Gifford’s Ice Cream stands around Maine. Nothing beats one or two hundred people waiting in line to get (free) ice cream in a nine-degree wind chill as it starts to snow.
Winter/spring sunrise trip (winter/spring, started in 2004: 2004 2005 2007)
Each year I take one weekend and head down to southern Maine. I spend Saturday night in a hotel and wake up early enough to catch the sunrise at either Portland Head Light or Old Orchard Beach. Sure it’s cold. Sure the lighthouse is covered with snow and the beach with ice. Does that stop me? Of course not. To be honest, it’s really refreshing to have a place all to yourself with crisp winter air as the sun rises over the Atlantic.
Mount Battie hike (mid-April, lifetime: 2002 2004 2006)
My mother has been making the trek up the side of Mount Battie in Camden since she was a child. The tradition was passed down to me early on, and we spend a weekend day each April hiking the side of Battie. I even have a custom-made walking stick for the occasion.
Dance concerts (late April and mid-December, started in 2004: 2006 2007)
It should not be a surprise to anyone that I’m a huge fan of dance performances, both for their creativity and the photo opportunities. It’s a great way to welcome in the holiday season or welcome in the summer.
Independence Day fireworks (July 4, lifetime: 2006 2007)
My parents and I would always scope out a spot on the hill on the corner of Exchange and Hancock Streets in downtown Bangor when Dad worked at United Bank. Our old spot may now be a construction site, but we still find a place to watch the fireworks over the Penobscot River each year.
Whale watching (mid-August, lifetime: 2002 2006)
Mom and I (along with an occasional special guest) head down to Bar Harbor each summer to head out on a Bar Harbor Whale Watch boat into Frenchman’s Bay and the Gulf of Maine. Over the years we’ve seen sunfish, dolphins, right whales, minkes, and humpbacks. Cruising out into the open sea at 35 MPH is worth the chill you cover up with warm layers of clothing. (Why do so many traditions have to do with being cold?)
American Folk Festival (late August, started in 2003: 2006 2007)
The AFF is Bangor’s best event, and I’ve attended in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007. There’s a good chance you’ll find me running from stage to stage at the yearly three-day music festival. Starting last year, you might also see me volunteering. (You may also spot me eating blooming onions, hot wings from Governor’s, lemonade, donuts, peanut butter cake from River Driver’s, and more.) I’ve discovered some great bands at the Festivals, and it’s been the home to some of my best-ever photos.
Apple picking (mid-September, lifetime: 2003 2005 2006)
Right around the start of school each year, my parents and I would head to Winterport to pick our own apples. Lately we’ve continued the tradition in Dixmont, filling up a bucket full of Macintoshes.
Thanksgiving cornbread (late November, started in 2005)
When I found my own apartment, I wanted to bring something to the table (literally) for our Thanksgiving trips to each of my grandparents’ houses. I settled on the Homesteader Cornbread at Allrecipes.com. It’s gotten rave reviews each year.
30holidays (November 26 through December 25, started in 2006: 2006 2007)
For two years now, I’ve spent late November through Christmas taking one holiday or winter-related photo each day. I’ve yet to make a complete set, but it’s still a great way to get in the holiday spirit.
Christmas tree (early December, lifetime: 2002 2005 2006 2007)
Christmas is in the air as my parents and I head out to Piper Mountain Christmas Tree Farm in Newburgh to choose and cut our Christmas tree. Out of all of the yearly traditions, this may be the most important one; I’ve trudged through snow with strep to have a say in tree selection in the past. When the tree has been chosen, the real fun begins: hot apple cider and donuts in the Piper Mountain gift shop.
Holiday baking (mid-December, lifetime)
Although it’s been tougher to schedule since I left the nest, Mom and I always make time to do some holiday cooking each year. The menu doesn’t change that much from year to year: cinnamon rolls, mint-filled sandwich cookies, brownies with mint and hard chocolate toppings, mulled cider, and chocolate bread pudding.
South Paris and the elk farm (December 24, started in 2005: 2006 2007)
Who says the Web can’t lead to new friendships? I met Melody online in 2003, I think. After learning that her parents lived in Maine, we started a Christmas Eve tradition in the form of a visit to a local western Maine elk farm. I explained the rest of the story – including the Route 2 Christmas carol sing-along – in a blog post last year.

What are your yearly traditions?

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